Rose-Tinted Glass
by The Showman
Summary: What do you do when your faith in humanity is lost? Do you take the leap, or do wait for your own destruction? one-shot, also kind-of prompt


When I was younger, a more innocent soul, before I learned to keep my head down if I wanted to survive with the Dursleys, I saw everything through a rose tinted glass.

When I would bring things home from school, show them to Aunt Petunia, and she threw them away, I would always think to myself- _it's alright, just try a little harder next time and she'll keep it, try a little harder and she'll love it just as much as she loves Dudley's._

When my rose tinted glasses were removed, I saw the world as it was; no- as it _is._

People were cruel, people hate what they don't understand, what they're jealous of- whenever there is an excuse to hate, humans will take it.

When I realized that, it was the beginning of my hatred for mankind.

For six years, I grew, clearly seeing everything around me, until I turned eleven.

When I was introduced into the magical world, it was as though those colored glasses that I had removed years ago were back- I no longer hated all of humanity, wizards and witches would be _different._

I was wrong. For seven years I thought wizards and witches were different, but they aren't. They're just the same- prejudiced against everything they can't understand.

A month after I finally murdered Voldemort, the rose-tinted glass was removed again.

I was researching, looking at trials and how the 'Dark Arts' came to be forbidden.

Only a few of the branches of the dark arts were actually anything that could be considered dark- the rest was outlawed by people who either feared them or couldn't use them.

The Ministry of Magic didn't change anything for 'dark' creatures, and as I grew older, they even began to consider telling the Muggles of our existence. I held them off from that with my cautious influence, but not for long.

As each day passed, the Ministry made more and more laws that catered only to Muggleborns- and I researched things like that also. Before, there were other holidays- Christmas was celebrated as Yule, Halloween was Samhain.

Some of the things Voldemort was fighting for actually made sense, but others didn't.

When the Ministry eventually called me dark because I didn't want us to come out to the Muggles, I told them exactly what I thought.

" _Harry, why shouldn't we come out to the muggles?" Hermione asks me._

" _Because I know how they will react- I know exactly how they_ have _reacted. Have you forgotten that I grew up with the Dursleys? I just think it's a bad idea- muggles fear what they can't understand." I say, not adding that witches and wizards react the same._

" _Harry, that's why we'll explain it to them. Not everyone is like the Dursleys." Hermione says gently. She doesn't understand human nature the way I do- her rose-tinted glasses haven't been removed._

" _Hermione you can't! They WON'T accept us!" I try to warn her, but she simply gives me a peculiar look that I've never seen on her face before._

" _Stop being prejudiced, Harry. We are going to come out to them, and that is final." She says frostily._

" _And what exactly will you do if I don't accept that, if I don't publically back your statement?" I ask. No matter what Hermione does, I_ always _back her publically, even if we argue behind closed doors._

" _I will tell everyone that you're being prejudiced, because you are! Honestly Harry, since when have you hated muggles so much that you don't want us to interact with them at all?"_

" _Mione, I never said that I hated muggles, I just fear for us if they come to hate us- they have nuclear weapons, what would we do if they were to use them on us?" I say firmly._

" _It won't come to that, Harry. I believe in them." Hermione says, just as firmly. I walk away, out of her large fancy office, unable to help my last comment._

" _Is it really my fault if I don't?"_

The next day, the papers had an article of precious Harry Potter, the Man-Who-Killed going dark.

Here I stand, on a large cliff above the ocean, thinking of the past. Thinking of a time before the muggles knew, before they reacted.

When Hermione first told them, they loved it, they loved the idea of us, of magic, of people who could solve their every problem like it was nothing. A few days after Hermione revealed us, Ron and I had a conversation.

" _Harry, you know Hermione didn't know about or endorse the article about you, right?" Ron asks me over a shared Firewhisky._

" _Yeah… I know. I just… I grew up with muggles, and while they weren't they prime example of kindness, they still showed me how muggles could feel about us at their worst." I reply._

" _I agree, mate- muggles shouldn't know about us. It violates the Statute of Secrecy entirely, it makes everything the statute served as before meaningless. I tried to convince Hermione before to, but you know how stubborn she is."_

" _Yeah…I know. She doesn't see things the way I do, I'm always looking for the worst-case scenario, because that's usually what happens when I'm around." I say._

" _So how goes your ah… relationship with George…?"_

It only took them half of a year.

The first death of a wizard by a muggle was said to be an accident. He was of the American government, and when confronted, they claimed that he was a rogue man, working alone. They handed him over without a fight to the American Ministry of Magic, and all seemed to be fine.

Until the exact same thing seemed to continue happening, even when the wizards realized and caught the muggles before they could harm their intended target. It seemed that the American muggle government feared the wizards, and wished them out of their way.

Eventually, the same thing began happening all over the world, until the muggles all teamed together and began hunting the wizards. It was a horrible time for us, and when anyone went out for food and such items, usually they would come back slightly worse than they were before.

Some muggles were catching wizards and experimenting on us, so they had come up with a biological weapon that would only hurt wizards. It was a gas, they released it all over the world and it took out over three quarters of the remaining wizard population with the first wave.

By the time we found a way to counteract the poison, it was to late. We were hunted like dogs, hell, if a muggle found us, they were _awarded_ for it.

It soon became that the only way to escape a muggle was to kill them before they killed you.

I have only one child left, I had three with Ginny before I escaped her love potion- my Lily Luna, and it hurts me to see the rose-tinted glass removed from her eyes, to watch her learn that mankind is despicable, just as I learned.

We are the only two left of our family, James and Albus were some of the first to die from the gas.

Lily is 27, before this all started, she was a budding Unspeakable in the time chamber. She has an idea for us, but I don't know if I can take it. She…it would sacrifice her, I would never see my Lily-pad again.

" _Dad…" her eyes are tired, but so are mine._

" _Lily, I can't! I can't do this, it would leave you here to fend for yourself, and even if it did work, you wouldn't exist anymore!" I say._

" _It's worth it, dad! The muggles have destroyed enough of what we have, if you go back you can change that. I am going to set up what we need, and you can make a decision. Hurry, though." She tries to walk away, but I grab her._

" _Lily, what would I do, in my own past, how could I change anything?" I ask her._

 _She looks determinedly at me._

" _Join Voldemort."_

Here I am, only an hour later, contemplating everything I have, wondering if I should take this leap.

Should I do this? Should I leave my only daughter behind, to fade into nonexistence?

Should I take this chance to go back into my past and change my fate ?

Should I join Voldemort?


End file.
